New York, New York – Department of Finance Canada - In a challenging global environment, Canada's economy is strong and growing.
Canada's solid economic performance—bolstered by continued investments in the middle class—has helped drive the unemployment rate to 40-year lows, and affirms that Canada continues to be a good place to invest and do business.
Today, Minister of Finance Bill Morneau met with members of the New York Stock Exchange to promote Canada's economic plan and encourage continued investment.
Minister Morneau also spoke with members of the Canadian Association of New York at the Yale Club and discussed how Canada's 2019 Budget, Investing in the Middle Class, takes steps to further increase Canada's competitiveness on the international stage.
Through Budget 2019, the Government is attracting global investments by proposing to:
- Build much-needed infrastructure through public-private partnerships, including a new, coordinated plan that would deliver as much as $6 billion in new public and private investments in rural broadband over the next 10 years, giving every Canadian home and business access to high-speed internet.
- Support modern, livable communities with a one-time local infrastructure top-up of $2.2 billion. This will double the federal commitment in 2018–19 and help municipalities and First Nations communities pay for crucial repairs and other important local projects.
- Encourage businesses to innovate by making the Scientific Research and Experimental Development Tax Incentive Program more accessible for growing innovative firms.
- Assist the next generation of workers by helping create up to 84,000 new student work placements per year by 2023-24 so that more students can gain relevant, real-world work experience while still in school, and develop the skills employers need.
- Help working Canadians learn new skills with the creation of the Canada Training Benefit, a benefit that will give workers money to help pay for training, provide income support during training, and, with the cooperation of the provinces and territories, offer job protection so that workers can take the time they need to keep their skills relevant and in-demand.
- Lower energy costs by partnering with the Federation of Canadian Municipalities to increase energy efficiency in residential, commercial and multi-unit buildings.
With Budget 2019, the Government is continuing to invest in people and growing the economy for the long term in a fiscally responsible way—keeping the federal debt-to-GDP ratio on a steady downward track. A declining federal debt-to-GDP ratio will help further reduce Canada's net debt-to-GDP ratio, which is already the lowest among G7 countries.
Source : Government Of Canada